OAKLAND — Oakland police violated the city’s sanctuary city policy Aug. 16 while providing traffic control during an Immigration and customs enforcement raid, and provided false information to the public after the fact, Privacy Advisory Commission Chair Brian Hofer alleged during a commission meeting.

An ICE official said Oakland police were truthful and upfront about the operation. Oakland police officials deferred comments to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations branch.

Two people were detained, one of whom was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations officers during the raid of a Guatemalan family’s home in West Oakland. Homeland Security Investigations officials, at the time, alleged officers served a search warrant at the home in connection with a human-trafficking investigation involving children.

However, nobody at the home has been charged with any human-trafficking charges, Hofer said. A civil immigration case has been filed against the man who was arrested, he said.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Spradlin, in a statement to the Oakland Tribune, said the search warrant was executed Aug. 16 “as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, not a civil immigration investigation.”

Spradlin also said, “HSI does not conduct ‘raids.’ ”

Oakland police directed traffic while Homeland Security officers served the warrant, which occurred about a month after the City Council approved the Privacy Advisory Commission’s recommendation to sever a memorandum of understanding between the police department and Homeland Security.

“Because safety is HSI’s chief concern during operations, our special agents regularly request assistance from local law enforcement personnel to provide support for officer and public safety,” Spradlin said.

“Local law enforcement is best suited for this, as they have an established relationship with the community and knowledge regarding local traffic patterns and other logistical considerations,” he said.

Police were told that the case involved human trafficking and did not enter the home, said Oakland police Lt. Bob Hookfin at the commission’s Oct. 5 meeting. Two officers stayed outside to make sure bystanders were safe, he said, adding that the 700 block of 27th Street, where the raid occurred, gets busy with drivers and pedestrians.

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“The last thing we want is to have unsuspecting pedestrians walking through or driving through that particular area and they’re conducting some type of raid and gunfire, whatever the case, is exchanged,” Hookfin said. “If we’re not there, that could happen, so we’re on the outskirts of this.”

Afterward, police issued two news releases. The second one corrected information in the first that the investigation was into alleged sex trafficking. Chief Anne Kirkpatrick also hosted a town hall meeting weeks later to address the raid.

Kirkpatrick was not at the commission meeting. Hookfin would not comment to the commission board regarding Hofer’s allegation about the information Kirkpatrick released to the public.

Kirkpatrick led the public to believe criminal charges were filed against the man who was arrested, that the moratorium of understanding between Oakland police and Homeland Security Investigations had been severed by the time the incident occurred and that the case was not a deportation matter, Hofer said.

However, the moratorium of understanding was not severed until after the raid, he said, and the man who was arrested does face deportation.

Spradlin said Kirkpatrick “has been truthful in her statement about the nature of the ongoing HSI investigation and OPD’s involvement,” since the criminal investigation is ongoing.

The commission voted to recommend the City Council demand Kirkpatrick present a report on the raid during a public hearing. Oakland police officials were scheduled to address the allegations at a Nov. 14 Public Safety Committee meeting, but the hearing has been indefinitely postponed.

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